Mass Effect and Making Choices Matter

So I recently played through Mass Effect 2. I played the first game like 4 years ago, and didn't remember much of it. Even so, Mass Effect 2 fucking rocked, especially in the area of choices. Basically, that's all the series is about when it comes down to it - you making decisions in situations. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's boring, and sometimes it's so fucking tense I'm YELLING at my TV because of it. And as someone who has played waaaaay to many shitty games recently, it's nice to play one that at least attempts to have some emotional impact.

One of the reasons Mass Effect in general, and 2 in particular are so good is that they present you with choices that actually matter that affect characters you actually care about. Whoa. I'll give you a for instance: Far Cry 3. The story in this game stopped being interesting after you killed Vaas, and the "choice of ending" was pretty unsatisfying.

That's it. This is the first time in this game's campaign that you're actually presented with a choice. It must have some serious repercussions, right? Haha, nope. Depending on what you do, you get a different ending cutscene. After the credits roll, you get the option to go back to the island and keep playing. After that, it's like no campaign even happened - nothing in the environment is different save for one location, and no one makes any kind of comment on what you chose.

If you're going to make the ending, you know, the end of your game, at least make it really the end. If Far Cry 3 had simply ended after picking an ending, without the option to continue playing afterwards, I think it would've worked much better. Certainly would've felt more significant. Also, the characters in this game are so bland I forgot one of their names during the campaign. Forget about feeling any sort of emotional attachment - while it's definitely easy to blame it on the game's uneven writing, you also don't really get to see much of your friends so it's hard to give a shit.

Mass Effect, though, forces you to spend the whole damn game recruiting and doing missions with your buddies. While this doesn't instantly make them super well fleshed out, their optional loyalty missions are all interesting and at least give you some basic background info on them. And Far Cry 3 may not be the best comparison - it's an FPS game, not really on the same plane as Mass Effect.

Which is another thing Mass Effect has that makes it more interesting - you're fighting for the survival of the fucking galaxy. Far Cry 3's quest to save some whiny white kids seems microscopic in perspective.

Oh yeah, and the Illusive Man is badass.

What the fuck is up with the Far Cry 3 handbook entries?

So in Far Cry 3, there's an in-game handbook with little blurbs about basically everything in the game - weapons, people, even the different flowers.

The content of these blurbs range from boring, to funny, to BONE-CHILLINGLY HORRIFYING. Seriously.


I can tell you'd like an example. Here's the text from the entry for the wild boars:

"Hope you aren't kosher, because boars are the primary food source on Rook Island".

(Side note: some of the entries refer to "Rook Island" and others say "The Rook Islands". Which is it? It's like the writers forgot there are 2 damn islands in the game. What did they call the South Island? "South Island"? So we have 2 islands to explore in Far Cry 3: Rook Island and the South Island. GJ, Ubisoft.)

Anyway... so that was pretty harmless right? Not really funny, but cute at least. Now here's the entry for the jellyfish:

"The screams through the night. The hot air of explosions shaking the treetops. The bodies. Some faceless. They were only following orders."

Jesus Christ, when did Far Cry 3 become Apocalypse Now: the Game? Every time I read that, I laugh because it's so jarring - completely at odds with the tone of the game.

Want more? Here's the entry for the fucking seagull:

"Every night I watch the skies from inside my bunker. They'll come back. If I watch they'll come. I can hear the voices from the sky. Calling my name. There's the ridge. The guns in the jungle. Screaming. Smoke. The blood. All over my hands."

Again, holy fuck. Where is this coming from? As far as I know, only these 2 animals' entries are this weird. A lot of them are lame, but none of them are this out-there. Why? I'm not sure, but I have a theory.

These 2 animals, seagull and jellyfish, are both huge pains in the ass to actually kill. The seagulls are only found on the beaches and fly the hell away from you pretty much as soon as they see you, so you have to be a little creative. The jellyfish, on the other hand, are literally invulnerable - the only way to kill them is to go to a certain part of the ocean that's glitched out and is just a normal patch of seafloor you can walk around on, and throw a Molotov at one. Obviously, the average gamer is not going to give a shit about these handbook entries (which don't count towards anything), so they'll probably never see any of these entries.

And since they figured no one would go to the trouble of getting these entries, the writers probably wrote something fucked up for fun. Like I said, I can't confirm this, but it seems the most logical answer.

The next best explanation is that they intended for these entries to seem like they were ripped from the script for The Deer Hunter just to... I dunno. Enhance the atmosphere? Maybe they thought it would be funny? I don't know, but it's interesting, and I like games that interesting tidbits hidden in them. Especially after I thought I had pretty much beaten this game to a pulp.

About

My name is Alex and I'm a 21 year old senior at Grand Valley State University in Michigan majoring in technical writing.

I'm 6'9" and no, I do not play basketball.

I'd like to say this blog will be full of interesting life experiences and philosophical inquiry. In reality, it will probably be me attempting to matter by giving out unsolicited opinions and petty slander. Enjoy.

First post

I finally started a blog. Since I'm going into technical writing I figured I should get myself one of these.

So stay tuned for cool blog posts about me and the cool things I do.

Bye.